Help For Linux

The Mother of All The Year of the Linux Desktop

2013-02-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

This article is a collection of "The Year of the Linux Desktop" over the years.

2013
As I came up with the title for this article, I did so fully realizing that many of you will likely groan at the thought of yet another "tis the year of the Linux desktop" article. However unlike other articles, I have actual concrete examples of why I think that it's fair to suggest that 2013 could be a huge year for Linux on the desktop.

2012
In the 21 years or so since its inception, Linux has gained some amazing enthusiast street cred, but failed time and again to enter the mainstream. This year, however, may afford it an opportunity it’s never had before: to gain the momentum necessary to join the big boys in the operating system world. If that happens, Linux devotees the world over — from users to developers to even Linus Torvalds himself — may have Microsoft and Windows 8 to thank.

2011
Ever since Android has come out I have assumed the growth path of Linux (and the ultimate strategy of Google) will be Android on phones -> Android on desktops. My take on the Netbook episode is that, where customers returned Linux netbooks they returned them because they were unfamiliar.

2010
It kills me to say this: The dream of Linux as a major desktop OS is now pretty much dead.

2009
"Although I don't consider 2009 as the year of the Linux desktop, most of you will probably agree with me that this is the year of the Linux-powered smartphones. We can mainly thank Android for this as its popularity and market share has been growing at a rapid pace."

2008
When Evans Data released its survey on Tuesday showing a sharp shift toward Linux (and away from Windows) among developers in North America, the Linux world went wild. Wistful pengiun heads heralded the coming Open Source Age. But the real measure of OS success is in the number of users, not the number of developers. After all, most of the world's PCs end up in the hands of ordinary people who have no interest in coding. Fortunately for open-source addicts, there are several signs that the coming year could bring a sea-change among end users, making 2008 the year of the Linux desktop.

2007
"This past month has seen a flurry activity from a number of players in the Linux desktop space. Red Hat, Suse, Ubuntu, Dell, Lenovo and even Intel white box system builders are getting into the act. Is the year of the Linux desktop finally upon us or is this just another flare up generated by the Linuxworld conference in San Francisco?"

2006
See, every time someone spouts off about this mythical year it just gives more fodder to the doubting thomases and plain ol' anti-open-source-desktop people. and i don't blame them: it amounts to crying wolf.

You can see the trend and hope among Linux enthusiasts by reading these articles over the years. The release of iOS and Android have put a dampener on the question.
PS. Urban Dictionary defines Linux as Communism in electronic form.

Ubuntu has peaked?

2013-01-16T06:04:00.000-08:00

I searched 'Ubuntu' in Google Trends and this is what I got:

As you can see, the graph is sliding down and its current popularity is close to the levels of 2006.
2006.

Back when it was just starting to get popular. I think I started using Ubuntu in 2008.

With the rise of Android and iOS, there has been a shift to mobile OS.

Ubuntu too has come up with a mobile OS. I saw the video demos and it does look interesting.

Surprisingly, Ubuntu is most popular in Cuba.

Ubuntu on Tablets

2012-12-27T06:59:00.000-08:00

A look at Ubuntu on Tablets:

Ubuntu 12.04 Review

2012-05-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

Here is a video review of Ubuntu 12.04 version: What do you think of it? Have you tried it?

The Accidental Hacker

2012-04-10T11:20:00.003-07:00

Ext2Read: Access Ubuntu files from Windows

2011-06-06T03:38:00.000-07:00

Ext2Read is an explorer like utility to explore ext2/ext3/ext4 files. It now supports Linux LVM2. It can be used to view and copy files and folders. It can recursively copy entire folders. It can also be used to view and copy disk and file system images.

Download the codes and executables.

Features

View and copy Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 files and folders.
Ext4 Extents support.
LVM2 Support
Recursively copy whole directories
LRU based block cache for faster concurrent access

[Solved] Youtube Fullscreen Not Working in Ubuntu 10.10

2010-12-08T09:23:00.000-08:00

I recently ran into this problem where videos played on Youtube would freeze when I switched to fullscreen. They played fine if I used Totem to open the flash video file. Finally I have found the solution.

Just right click on the video (configure flash) go to settings and then click on local storage and drag it to unlimited and that's it! full screen works perfectly.

Thanks to Ubuntu Forums :)

Decibel Audio Player

2010-09-26T07:03:00.001-07:00

Decibel is a music player built in GTK which takes a different approach when it comes to the way features are implemented, and that is, Decibel uses only plug-ins which can be enabled or disabled on demand. This makes it either a pretty featured player, or a very simple and basic one, depending on which plug-ins you need enabled.

Decibel integrates well in GNOME and follows its HIG

The first thing I liked after opening Decibel was its slogan, which goes "...And Music for All" (Metallica anyone?)
The interface is clean and simple, and according to the official website, it follows the GNOME HIG (human interface guidelines). To the left there is a tree view listing files and folders which can be be added to the playlist. It also includes three view modes, full mode (shows everything), playlist mode (shows only the playlist), and mini mode (shows only control buttons, cover - if enabled, artist, title and album).

The Mini Mode

Although Decibel may seem simple at first, this is because all the plug-ins (except the File Explorer) are disabled by default. You can turn Decibel into a pretty powerful player by turning these on. Here is a list of the plug-ins (which can be accessed via the Edit->Preferencesmenu item) bundled with Decibel:
- Audio CD: plays audio discs
- AudioScrobbler: submit music you listen to Last.fm
- Covers: show album covers
- Desktop Notification: it is an OSD (on-screen display) to show when the track changes

Desktop Notification

- Equalizer: 10-band equalizer (no presets at the moment)
- File Explorer - browse through files and folders and add them to the playlist
- Instant Messenger Status: allows to set what you're listening to in your status message, with a configurable message (e.g. ♫ {artist} - {album} ♫); I tested it with Pidgin and it works, for Empathy it didn't seem to work though
- Library: organizes music by tags
- ReplayGain: normalize volume
- Status File: generates a text file with the current status
- Status Icon: system tray integration (not configurable)
- Twitter: update the status of your Twitter account

Plug-ins and the equalizer

To install Decibel in Ubuntu, type sudo apt-get install decibel-audio-player in a terminal.

Decibel is very nice, and its strong point is definitely its modularity, allowing you to turn it from a basic player into a more complex one.

Keryx: Offline Package Installation

2010-09-23T10:36:00.001-07:00

from OMG! UBUNTU! by omgubuntu.co.uk

The Keryx Project allows users with limited internet connectivity the ability to download and update packages for Ubuntu.

The real beauty of Keryx is that access to a Linux computer is not required to access and download updates as the application runs from a USB drive and works with Linux, OS X and, perhaps most vitally in many situations where internet access it limited, Windows.

How it works

To use Keryx you first have to create and save a “project” to your USB drive. This is simply a snapshot of your currently installed packages on Ubuntu computer.

Then, when somewhere with internet access, you plug in your USB key, load up your profile and click the ‘Get Updates’ button to download all available updates to your USB drive for installation back at home.

By being able to reference your systems’ package list – just as Synaptic/APT do – Keryx download anything you don’t need but does ensure all necessary dependencies are pulled in.

How do I get new applications?

Use the search bar to locate the application you want to install. Highlight it, right click on it and then choose’ Download’.

The package(s) will be downloaded to your device ready for installation back on your ‘buntu box.

Installing downloaded updates/applications

When back at home/your computer you just plug your USB drive in, load up Keryx and use the ‘Project > Install’ button to install and apply downloaded packages.

Download

Downloads can be found over @ keryxproject.org/download.

Help

The project has been in development for the last 3 years and the work so far is fantastic – but the team have plenty more ideas and features they would like to implement but not as much time or manpower to do it.

If you’d like to help lend a hand to such a worthwhile project head over tokeryxproject.org/contribute/ and learn how you can get involved.

Best Video Editor For Ubuntu

2010-09-22T09:19:00.001-07:00

from OMG! UBUNTU! by omgubuntu.co.uk

A new version of Linux video editor OpenShot has been released today, some 5 months after the previous stable release was made back in March this year.

A large selection of new features certainly make this release worth the wait. Improved stability, the addition of 3D animated titles powered by Blender and a rejigged ‘Preferences’ dialogue all sit amongst the changes.

Other enhancements include: -

Custom Transitions
New Audio & Video Effects including Chroma hold
Time-line Improvements / Animations
Improved Effects User Interface
New netbook friendly theme
Razor Improvements (now supports snapping to play-head)
Improved Language Support (Rotate effect now works in all locales)
New DVD Export (Create compliant DVD images)
Improved Exporting of different frame-rates

As is tradition with OpenShot releases, its creator Jonathan Thomas has made an accompanying video highlighting the new features: -

Theme

Sadly OpenShot still insists on using its own icon theme rather than adhering to the users default.

This certainly annoys many of you out there as our poll back in May this year suggested; a whopping 91.72% (1,163) of you said you’d prefer OpenShot to use your default theme.

Download

The OpenShot PPA provides the latest version for easy installation and updating on Ubuntu 9.10 or greater

To add it open a Terminal and enter the following two lines carefully: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonoomph/openshot-edge

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install openshot

.deb installers are also provided but note that they only work on Ubuntu 10.04 or higher.

Install 64bit Flash from a PPA or .deb

2010-09-20T09:14:00.001-07:00

from OMG! UBUNTU! by omgubuntu.co.uk

With Adobe re-starting their 64bit Flash testing, Linux users are once again able to benefit from native flash on their 64bit desktops.

Installing it isn’t a great chore, as we outlined previously, but if you’re a PPA-kinda dude or dudette then a PPA maintained by SevenMachines is available for ease of use.

Installing 64bit Flash in Ubuntu via a PPA

I used to use this PPA myself so I can attest to the fact that it is a) genuine and b) works. Seeing that it was now updated with the latest version of 64bit Flash I couldn’t resist sharing!

Maverick, Lucid & Karmic users can add it via the following command below. Note that it *will* uninstall any 32bit version of Flash you have installed prior to replacement.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sevenmachines/flash

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install flashplugin64-installer

Installing 64bit Flash in Ubuntu using a .deb

If the idea of adding a PPA is a little bit excessive for your needs you can, of course, just download the relevant .deb file from SevenMachine’s PPA instead.

Easy links below.

Karmic: flashplugin64-installer_amd64.deb
Lucid: flashplugin64-installer_amd64.deb
Maverick: flashplugin64-installer_amd64.deb

Ubuntu 10.10 Ambiance & Radiance themes for Chrome, Firefox & Opera [Updated]

2010-09-20T09:12:00.001-07:00

The default Ambiance theme in Ubuntu 10.10 – and its lighter sibling Radiance – have received lots of due love and attention since Lucid and thusly many third-party browser “themes” have also been pepped up in anticipation.

Radiance Chromium & Ambiance chromium by SWOriginal are the best looking and best ‘fitting’ Chrome/ium themes available for use on the Ubuntu 10.10 desktop.

Chrome in Ubuntu 10.10 using the SWOriginal's themes

The author has also created a Firefox Persona ready for users to apply, too. You can try it out before installing by directing your Firefox browser to getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/297448

SWOriginal's Radiance Firefox Persona for Maverick users

KyleBaker has long been mentioned here on OMG! Ubuntu! for his fantastic Ambiance and Radiance Opera skins.

He’s wasted no-time in making them Maverick ready either, and both can be installed @kyleabaker.com/2010/05/26/ambiance-skin-and-speed-dial-backgrounds/

Kyle Baker's revamped Radiance theme for Opera in Ubuntu 10.10

Download YouTube videos in Ubuntu

2010-09-09T13:00:00.001-07:00

There are plenty of ways to download videos from services such as YouTube to your hard-drive – ranging from command line foo & dedicated desktop applications, down to a simple bit of file-browsing.

ClipGrab is another of these, albeit with a slightly fresher-looking interface than most. It not only lets you download videos from sites like YouTube to your hard-drive but chucks in the ability to convert them to other popular formats – including audio only – as well.

"With ClipGrab the download of online videos is a breeze."

What makes the tool particularly attractive its competitors is the cross-platform nature; if you use OS X or Windows alongside Ubuntu but want to maintain a degree of familiarity between them then ClibGrab is well worth considering.

Download & Install

You won’t be surprised to learn that ClipGrab has a PPA, right? Add it using a terminal: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:clipgrab-team/ppa

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install clipgrab

Video downloaded with ClibGrab

from OMG! UBUNTU! by omgubuntu.co.uk

PhotoStory – tell your life in pictures

2010-09-08T10:00:00.001-07:00

Photostory is a small application for taking a daily snapshot of yourself using your webcam.

The main draw over, say, simply reminding yourself to take a picture with Cheese is that Photostory is able collate the collected images into a ‘stop motion’ style video. Somewhat in the vein of this incredibly popular one: -

Popout

Whether or not you have the patience to keep it up for 6 years like the dude above is down to you!

Features

When you launch Photostory it opens on today’s date and allow you to take a new snapshot. Now, you only get once chance (there is no delete button) so the addition of a preview screen within the application is a boon. Using the calendar widget embedded you can also scroll back through previous photos taken.

Keith, who's not been up to much since Karmic, takes his first picture with Photostory

Once you’ve taken a number you can press the ‘create film’ button to have your images assembled in chronological order, making for interesting viewing!

Features to come

Whilst the application does what it sets out to it is lacking a few features.

The inability to ‘retake’ a photo (which, admittedly, defeats the point somewhat) can annoy somewhat if it turns out blurry or distorted. This could somewhat be remedied by introducing some sort of countdown (as in Cheese) to ‘snapping’.

Over on the project page the developer, Joel Auterson, has listed some features he hopes to include in later releases: -

Adding music to video
Sharing to social networks
“Invisible mode”
Reminders

Download

Photostory .deb installers for 32bit and 64bit Ubuntu are available at the project page.

launchpad.net/photostory/+download

from OMG! UBUNTU! by omgubuntu.co.uk

Ofris - Deep Freeze Like Application For Linux [Ubuntu PPA]

2010-08-28T06:52:00.001-07:00

If you ever went to a cyber cafe, you probably noticed that any changes you make to their system: create or delete files, settings and so on, are reseted when you restart the computer. That's what the Deep Freeze program does.

Ofris is a Deep Freeze like application for Linux that is very easy to use - once you install it, you can "deep freeze" your Linux computer in a matter of seconds.

Ofris comes with an Ubuntu PPA so you can install it using the following commands (available for Ubuntu 9.10, 10.04 and 10.10):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tldm217/tahutek.net
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ofris-en

The last command will install the English version of Ofris (the package called just "ofris" will install the Indonesian version).

Once you install it, open a terminal and run:

ofris-en

And then select what you want to do, like freeze the system for this user or for another user. You can later unfreeze the system the same way.

via Web Upd8

Remove Thumbnail Borders in Ubuntu Lynx [10.04]

2010-08-01T02:28:00.001-07:00

If you’re using Ubuntu 10.04 or newer then you’ve probably seen the borders around your thumbnail pictures and movies.

This is how your images look by default.

You may like them with a thick white border, but if you’re looking for something a little sharper then give my thumbnail frame tweak a try!

This is how they look with my tweak!

The image that you’ll be downloading to use from me gives the thumbnails a drop-shadow effect and gives them a bit of a 3D stylish feel rather than a rounded clunky feel.

Open a terminal window and copy/paste the following commands to install or remove.

How to Install

wget http://a.imageshack.us/img135/8666/thumbnailframe.png
sudo mv thumbnailframe.png /usr/share/pixmaps/nautilus/thumbnail_frame.png
killall nautilus

Restore to original

wget http://a.imageshack.us/img651/5790/thumbnailframey.png
sudo mv thumbnailframey.png /usr/share/pixmaps/nautilus/thumbnail_frame.png
killall nautilus

Enjoy the new style thumbnails if you like them! This was brought about by a thread at UbuntuForums.org entitled “Changing the Nautilus ugly thick white border for thumbnails“.

Install OpenCV in Ubuntu 10.04

2010-07-29T06:27:00.001-07:00

I found this great tutorial on http://www.samontab.com/web/2010/04/installing-opencv-2-1-in-ubuntu/

OpenCV is an excellent library for Computer Vision. I have been using it for years and it helped me a lot during my master thesis.

OpenCV 1.0 can be easily installed in Ubuntu via the repositories. You can install OpenCV 2.0 by following one of my previous posts http://www.samontab.com/web/2010/03/installing-opencv-2-0-in-ubuntu/

Unfortunately, the newer version of OpenCV, 2.1, which was released on April has a slightly different installation procedure. Since it contains many bug fixes and some nice new additions, I will show you how to install it.

Here are the steps that I used to successfully install OpenCV 2.1 in Ubuntu 9.10. I have used this procedure for previous versions of Ubuntu as well with minor modifications (if any).

First, you need to install many dependencies, such as support for reading and writing jpg files, movies, etc… This step is very easy, you only need to write the following command in the Terminal

sudo apt-get install build-essential libgtk2.0-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libjpeg62-dev libtiff4-dev cmake libswscale-dev libjasper-dev

The next step is to get the OpenCV 2.1 code:

cd ~
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/files/opencv-unix/2.1/OpenCV-2.1.0.tar.bz2/download
tar -xvf OpenCV-2.1.0.tar.bz2
cd OpenCV-2.1.0/

In this version of OpenCV, the configure utility has been removed. Therefore you need to use Cmake to generate the makefile. Just execute the following line at the console. Note that there is a dot at the end of the line, it is an argument for the cmake program and it means current directory.

cmake .

Check that the above command produces no error and that in particular it reports FFMPEG as 1. If this is not the case you will not be able to read or write videos.

Now, you are ready to compile and install OpenCV 2.1:

make
sudo make install

Now you have to configure the library. First, open the opencv.conf file with the following code:

sudo gedit /etc/ld.so.conf.d/opencv.conf

Add the following line at the end of the file(it may be an empty file, that is ok) and then save it:

/usr/local/lib

Run the following code to configure the library:

sudo ldconfig

Now you have to open another file:

sudo gedit /etc/bash.bashrc

Add these two lines at the end of the file and save it:

PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH

Finally, open a new console, restart the computer or logout and then login again. OpenCV will not work correctly until you do this.

Now you have OpenCV 2.1 installed in your computer.

Let’s check some demos included in OpenCV:

cd ~
mkdir openCV_samples
cp OpenCV-2.1.0/samples/c/* openCV_samples
cd openCV_samples/
chmod +x build_all.sh
./build_all.sh

Some of the training data for object detection is stored in /usr/local/share/opencv/haarcascades. You need to tell OpenCV which training data to use. I will use one of the frontal face detectors available. Let’s find a face:

./facedetect --cascade="/usr/local/share/opencv/haarcascades/haarcascade_frontalface_alt.xml" --scale=1.5 lena.jpg

Note the scale parameter. It allows you to increase or decrease the size of the smallest object found in the image (faces in this case). Smaller numbers allows OpenCV to find smaller faces, which may lead to increasing the number of false detections. Also, the computation time needed gets larger when searching for smaller objects.

In OpenCV 2.1, the grabcut algorithm is provided in the samples. This is a very nice segmentation algorithm that needs very little user input to segment the objects in the image. For using the demo, you need to select a rectangle of the area you want to segment. Then, hold the Control key and left click to select the background (in Blue). After that, hold the Shift key and left click to select the foreground (in Red). Then press the n key to generate the segmentation. You can press n again to continue to the next iteration of the algorithm.

./grabcut lena.jpg

This image shows the initial rectangle for defining the object that I want to segment.

Now I roughly set the foreground (red) and background (blue).

When you are ready, press the n key to run the grabcut algorithm. This image shows the result of the first iteration of the algorithm.

Now let’s see some background subtraction from a video. The original video shows a hand moving in front of some trees. OpenCV allows you to separate the foreground (hand) from the background (trees).

./bgfg_segm tree.avi

There are many other samples that you can try.

5 Cool Sites for buying Computers Preinstalled with Linux

2010-07-25T12:48:00.001-07:00

Dell has all but bowed to pressure from Microsoft to torpedo its Ubuntuline of computers. Add that to the relative success of Windows 7 among Redmond's user base and you get a clearer picture of what is going on.
In case you are wondering, there are still lots of other vendors that offer a choosy range of machines preinstalled with Linux for your convenience. The following 5 are just a sample of the lot
ThinkPenguin
This site has a respectable array of desktop and laptop computers fitted with Ubuntu Linux ready for use. Prices start from $399 and you can also customize each machine to fit your hardware specification tastes at an extra price. They also other Linux peripherals like audio players (another name for iPod), cameras, printers among others.
Linux Certified
This site also has a range of laptops that ship with either of six distros namely Ubuntu, RedHat, Centos, OpenSuse, Fedora and Oracle Linux.
All the machines are also customizable to your taste for extra bucks. They also offer an optional dual-boot configuration with Windows for those who need the latter for special reasons.
ZaReason
One of the most popular Ubuntu centric OEMs out there, ZaReason stocks a wide array of machines; desktops, laptops and servers to suit various needs and specifications.They also stock some peripherals to add some spice to your machine.
Emperor Linux
According to this company

"EmperorLinux provides Linux laptops with full hardware support under Linux. Since 1999, we have supplied systems to a wide range of customers, including engineers, physicists, mathematicians, and astronomers at over 50 different government labs and over 200 universities. We have supplied hundreds of corporate clients, as well. If you use Linux in these environments, EmperorLinux is your sole source."

System76
Another of the well known Ubuntu centric manufacturers, System76 has some of the widest assortment of Linux machines out there. Their flagship machine, the Serval Professional is a machine that will make any geek go green with envy.
There are a lot more niche manufacturers that gladly ship computers preloaded with Linux. They may not have the clout of Dell, but they do a good job of giving you value for money and from what I have read, unparalleled support in your use of their machines. If you ever think of buying a Linux machine, you might want to give any of these a try!

via [http://www.ghabuntu.com/2010/07/5-cool-sites-for-buying-computers.html]

Portable Apps for Linux

2010-07-25T01:46:00.001-07:00

Portable Apps for Windows and Mac have been around for a long time, but are less common in the Linux world. Due to the complexity of Linux dependencies, and the different way different distributions locate these dependencies, the portable Linux application long seemed like a pipe dream.

Until now.

New website PortableLinuxApps features a number of portable Linux applications, which will work on any Linux distribution. These can run off your flash drive or from a folder in your home directory; it doesn’t matter. Best of all, there’s documentation out there to help you make your own program, should you not be able to find what you’re looking for.

How It Works

Like portable applications for other operating systems, portable Linux apps bundle each and every dependency a program has within a single executable. This has downsides: applications with redundent dependencies will take up more hard drive space, for example. For many the convinence of portable applications outweight this negative, particularly in our present age of cheap hard drives.

Because every dependency of each program is bundled in the program itself, these portable Linux apps can run on practically any Linux distro (although I’m certain someone in the comments will manage to prove this wrong). Ubuntu, Fedora and SuSe are all confirmed to work with these apps, which is a solid start.

Just remember: once you download such an app, remember that you’ll need to change the permission to allow executing the file as a program. If you’re not sure how to do this the simplest way is to right-click the file, then click “Properties” followed by the “Permissions” tab. You’ll find the option to allow execution at the bottom of the window:

One Online Collection

It would seem that, for now, PortableLinuxApps.org is the place to find…well…portable Linux apps.

The collection currently is quite small but features many MakeUseOf favourites, including:

DosBox, a DOS emulator for playing old games.
Handbrake, the best way to convert video.
Transmission, the light BitTorrent program.
Pidgin, the universal IM program.

Just download the software, set the permissions and you’re good to go!

Rolling Your Own

Can’t find a particular program you’re looking for? You can bundle it yourself! The process is relatively easy, if not a little convoluted. The good folks at OMG Ubuntu recently wrote a post explaining how to convert an Ubuntu .deb file into a portable app, so check that out for more information.

Here’s hoping that in the future creating a portable app from a .deb file will be a two-click affair!

Conclusion

Package management is perhaps what makes Linux great, but it’s also one of the most common complaints newcomers to Linux have. Being used to simply Googling and downloading any program needed, the average new users are a little confused by what they find: .tar.gz files or worse.

This is made worse by the sheer number of different Linux distros on the market, and the fact that they all have different ways of managing packages. The best thing to do, of course, is to learn to use your distro’s package manager. But portable apps are cool, and certainly have their place.

Can you think of cool uses for such technology? Have any apps you’ve bundled yourself that you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below!

NEW

KeePassX: Password Manager for Ubuntu

2010-07-24T08:31:00.001-07:00

KeePassX Password Safe is a free, open-source, light-weight and easy-to-use password manager for Linux, Windows and Mac OSX. Originally KeePassX was called KeePass/L for Linux since it was a port of Windows password manager Keepass Password Safe. After KeePass/L became a cross platform application, it changed it's name to KeePassX
KeePassX offers a little utility for secure password generation. The password generator is very customizable, fast and easy to use. Especially someone who generates passwords frequently will appreciate this feature.

The complete database is always encrypted either with AES (alias Rijndael) or Twofish encryption algorithm using a 256 bit key. Therefore the saved information can be considered as quite safe. KeePassX uses a database format that is compatible with KeePass Password Safe. This makes the use of that application even more favourable.
Ubuntu users: the application is available in the Ubuntu repositories, but if you want to install the latest version (which was released yesterday), you can either add the KeePassX PPA, or direct download of .deb files (see below).
Download KeePassX / KeePass (Windows, Ubuntu repository, openSUSE, Fedora 10 & 11 and Mac OSX) |

Download Ubuntu .deb

Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.5 Released

2010-07-24T07:43:00.001-07:00

A new version of Ubuntu Tweak has been released today: 0.5.5. There's no official announcement yet, but the new version is now available in the Ubuntu Tweak stable PPA.

Looking and the BZR changelog, there's only one new major feature in Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.5:PPA Purge (which was also available in the WebUpd8 PPA by the way), which you can now use from within Ubuntu Tweak.

PPA Purge can remove a PPA and downgrade all the packages you've installed from that PPA to the official version in the Ubuntu repositories. An example: suppose you add the c-korn/vlc PPA and install VLC 1.1.1 but you want to go back to VLC 1.0.6 which is available in the Ubuntu official repositories. Using PPA Purge, the c-korn/vlc PPA will be removed and VLC 1.1.1 will be downgraded to version 1.0.6 (there's one catch though: make sure you don't have any other PPAs with VLC 1.1.1 or 1.1.0 and so on).

PPA Purge can be found in Ubuntu Tweak under Applications > Package Cleaner.

Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.5 also brings support for Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat and also, itcan now detect if you're using Ubuntu Netbook Edition or Lubuntu.

Install Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.5:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa 
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

Note: The Ubuntu Tweak "About" dialog currently says "0.5.4.1" instead of "0.5.5". That's a display bug, if you have the Ubuntu Tweak PPA added and upgrade, you'll have version 0.5.5.

5 Ubuntu power tips

2010-07-16T22:20:00.001-07:00

The masses seem to think that Ubuntu is reserved for the newer users. Although it is true that this Linux distribution is ideal for new users, that doesn’t mean that’s the only market for Ubuntu. In fact, Ubuntu is perfectly suited for all levels of users.

Since most tips you see for Ubuntu are geared toward new user, we’re going to take it up a notch and offer some tips for the Ubuntu power users. These tips will vary in scope and level of expertise but all will improve your Ubuntu Linux experience.

1: Decrease your boot time

Did you know that you can profile your Ubuntu boot process to streamline it? This tool has been available since Ubuntu 6.04, and with the increased speed of 10.04, it can now bring your boot process to an incredibly low time. To do this all you need to do is edit your /etc/default/grub file and change the line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

to:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash profile"

Now issue the command:

sudo update-grub2

and reboot your machine. This next boot will take a bit longer than the standard period because the profiling is occurring. After this boot, remove the “profile” option from your grub file (which you just added above), issue the update-grub2 command again, and you will notice much faster boot times.

2: Launch applications with keyboard shortcuts

Removing your fingers from the keyboard is inefficient computing. Any good programmer will tell you this. But to make this as efficient as possible, you need to create keyboard shortcuts. To do this in the GNOME desktop, you have to visit your old pal gconf-editor. When you have that open, navigate to apps > metacity > global_keybindings, where you can edit any of the 12 run_command_X (where X is a number between 1 and 12) to be used to launch your favorite application or command.

3: Update without an Internet connection

With the help of a one-time Internet connection, you can create a CD that will help you update all your other Ubuntu machines. The tool you need is called APTonCD. This tool creates a CD/DVD of all the necessary updates for your Ubuntu machine. You can then take that disc to each of your machines, insert it, and update with the help ofdpkg. The APTonCD has an outstanding GUI that will walk you through the process of creating a usable CD/DVD.

4: Speed up your popup menus

If you’re like me, the delay between clicking on a menu and the appearance of a menu can be annoying — even though we’re talking milliseconds. I prefer to remove that delay so that as soon as I click, the menu appears. This is a simple trick for the GNOME desktop. Open up the file ~/.gtkrc-2.0 and add the line:

gtk-menu-popup-delay = 0

to the bottom of that file. Save the file, log out, and log back in. Your menus should now appear as soon as the thought crosses your mind.

5: Create Nautilus actions

The ability to right-click a file and run an action makes the desktop life so much easier. The GNOME desktop, along with the Nautilus file manager, offers a great feature that many do not even know exists: the Nautilus Actions Configuration Tool. You will find this tool in System > Preferences > Nautilus Actions Configuration. From within this window, you can roll your own actions, which will then be added to the right-click context menu from within Nautilus. You will need to set up five tabs of information: Action, Command, Folders, Conditions, and Advanced Conditions. This tool also allows you to import actions that others have created. Say you want to create a mailto action using Thunderbird. This one is simple. The only challenging section will be the command. For the command section (in the Command tab) enter:

Path: /usr/bin/thunderbird
Parameters: -compose 'attachment=file://%f'

The rest of the options should be fairly obvious to complete. Issue the command killall nautilus. After Nautilus restarts, you should have a new right-click content menu entry for the mailto.

Tap into the power

These are just a few samples of what you can do with a Ubuntu desktop (and/or server, in some instances). Ubuntu is a user-friendly AND powerful operating system. We’ll share more of these power tips in the future.

via http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/five-tips/?p=204

Transmission 2 for Ubuntu

2010-07-04T11:00:00.001-07:00

Transmission is the default bit torrent client in Ubuntu. It is one of my favorite bit torrent clients. Its simple interface is the thing I like the most about Transmission. Although it many seem inferior compared to some other bit torrent clients, it is still a very good client and has all the features most people would need.

With the release of Transmission 2.0, it has just become a lot better. Transmission 2.0 has a number of improvements/changes from the previous version. These includes:

More lightweight and faster startup time.
“Local peer discovery” to discover peers in the local network.
Better tracker announcement.
Use of IEC standards.

If you are using Ubuntu, here is how you can install it:

Open the Terminal.

Add the PPA ppa:transmissionbt/ppa with the command:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:transmissionbt/ppa

Then update the software list with

$ sudo apt-get update

Finally upgrade with the command

$ sudo apt-get upgrade

Or, if you want to upgrade only Transmission execute (the above command will update the whole system)

$ sudo apt-get install transmission

91% Super Computers Powered By Linux

2010-06-02T10:43:00.001-07:00

The Top 500 Project lists the 500 fastest supercomputers in the world biannually. They have released this year’s list and in terms of the operating system used it is Linux all the way with more than 90% of the supercomputers running on Linux.

It is not surprising that Linux is generally preferred in supercomputers but the percentage (91%) is surprising.

Hers is a diagrammatic representation of the data. The larger boxes represents more powerful systems.

You can view this diagram and others like country-wise breakup , manufature-wise breakup etc in an interactive form at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10187248.stm.

In case you want the actual numerical breakup of the Operating System Family, here it is:

And here is the Operating System breakdown:

What is Google Chrome OS?

2010-06-02T10:08:00.001-07:00

Google Chrome OS will be launched this fall. Here is a brilliant video which tells you what exactly is Google Chrome OS.

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Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.5 Released

Install Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.5:

5 Ubuntu power tips

1: Decrease your boot time

2: Launch applications with keyboard shortcuts

3: Update without an Internet connection

4: Speed up your popup menus

5: Create Nautilus actions

Tap into the power

Transmission 2 for Ubuntu

91% Super Computers Powered By Linux

What is Google Chrome OS?